


Of Thunderstorms and Vents

by mobilisinmobili



Series: MCU: One Shots [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Iron Dad, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Natasha Romanov, Sensory Overload, Teenagers, Thunderstorms, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Vents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-01 09:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15140582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mobilisinmobili/pseuds/mobilisinmobili
Summary: A particularly rough thunderstorm opens up fun opportunities-OR-Peter Parker is every bit as smart (And worrisome) as Tony thinks he is.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Technically a 2 chapter one shot

It wasn't every day that Tony had lab guests. People who deliberately made the long walk over to the far end of the compound and then down the metal stairs to his glass walled state of the art lab. His little niche. The place where he preferred being most of the time. 

Apart from Bruce and Peter and occasionally Pepper when need be, his lab remained pretty solitary. 

So he felt pretty justified in one shotting what remained of the cold coffee on his table to prepare himself for the inevitable bad news that was about to be delivered to him via a  _ very  _ solemn faced Natasha. 

He didn't even bother getting up off of his work bench as she keyed in the  _ secret  _ pin code, sending the glass doors whooshing open.

“We have a potential problem.”

Tony quirked a brow. 

That was certainly not what he had been expecting. 

“Potential?” 

“It's either nothing or a huge problem.”

“How refreshing.” he answered deadpan.

“Have you seen Peter?” she crossed her arms, glancing around the lab.

“Actually, no. Haven't seen him since he came back from patrol.”

“At four?” 

“Yup.”

“That was eleven hours ago.” her frown deepened. 

“He's probably sleeping or something. Can't go anywhere in this weather.” right on cue the lights dimmed momentarily before flickering back to full capacity.

“I don't think we'll lose electricity though. It's just super loud.” Tony brought up the huge mid room hologram replicating the thunder and lightning from outside the compound in real time. 

“He hasn't come out for lunch.” it was said matter of factly.

“Again, probably sleeping. Maybe video gaming? He came back at four but I heard star wars going on around five.” Tony waved the worry off.

There was a momentary drift of silence as the lights dimmed once more, followed by a notably loud boom of thunder.

Tony quirked a brow. 

“Wonder what's got point break this mad…” 

Nat didn't get to answer as a sharp tap came from the door. 

Tony unlocked it from his seat. 

“Tony. I don't want you to freak out, but I think we've got a problem.” Bruce began, looking more than a little worried. 

“Is this about Peter?” 

Banner nodded.

“No one's seen him?” 

Bruce glanced over at Nat before shaking his head. 

“FRIDAY” 

“Yes, sir?”

“Pull up home  protocol.”

Within moments the eerily realistic hologram of the real time thunderstorm was replaced with vitals and a blueprint of the compound. It was obvious the red glowing pin point of the location tag, hovering where it should right in the middle of Peter’s room. 

“I have good reason for my nonchalance.”

“I did a playback of the experiment I was working on this morning and it's been running a looped video since four.” Bruce answered solemnly.

That definitely got Tony’s attention.

He brought up the main system, skimming through the coding until he found it. 

The surprisingly messy but efficient hack in the main code. 

It took less than five minutes to fix and go through a systems reboot, but all in all, it was  _ definitely  _ an eye opening experience. 

Eye opening in that he had a feeling this was Peter and that it was going to make him rethink his whole “minimal rules weekends” something he'd started doing out of sheer guilt tripping from Pepper. 

Something about teenagers needing space…

But if  _ this  _ was Peter's plan, things were about to get a whole lot more rulesy…

FRIDAY came back online, showing a whole new page with the home protocol’s information. 

Strangely enough, the vitals hadn't changed, but the location did.

Tony and Nat wasted no time in throwing open cabinets and looking under tables.

Bruce just stared in surprise at the glowing red dot hovering above the sizeable space of Tony’s basement lab…

And then it clicked. 

“Hey, Tony?”

“Yeah?” he responded from inside one of the hydraulic elevators.

“Your lab has sound damp tech right?”

“Walls and ceiling.”

“I know where Peter is.”

There was a moment of absolute silence before Natasha and Tony popped back out into view in scary synchronization. 

“Bruce maneuvered around the room, hoisting himself up on one of the far tables pushed up against the back wall before getting up on his tiptoes to peek into the metal grate separating the vent from the lab. 

“I've been here the entire time. How the hell did he get in there?!”

“You said he was watching star wars at five?”

“yeah. I went upstairs for some ice cream.” Bruce’s disapproving look only lasted a second before flicking back to the vent.

“The living room vent are connected to your lab and my lab. But your lab’s the only room that's relatively sound proof.”

It dawned on Tony, crushing his heart a tiny bit at the same time. 

“Oh my god. The thunder.” his eyes widened in shock. 

He jumped atop the table to see for himself. 

He didn't hesitate in grabbing an electric screwdriver off the table below him and undoing the vent shaft before gently prying it off leaving a decent sized,  _ very  _ cold vent where Peter had decided to curl up, hoodie and sweats doing nothing to help from the chill.

“Peter.  _ Peterrr.”  _ Tony prodded gently. 

Peter in turn blinked open a sleepy eye before shutting it against the harsh light filtering in. No one missed the shiver. 

“‘s cold.” he muttered, curling tighter into himself.

“Peter, buddy. You can't sleep here.” Bruce tried, gently pulling the sleeping teen towards the lab. 

He glanced to Tony for help, which he obliged very quickly, not missing a beat. 

They got him out safely, save for a moment of panic when the table had rattled. 

All three adults looked down to find that Dum-e and U had opted to not only bring a spare pillow and blanket but the entire sofa from the front of the lab. 

Something Tony had to admit was a pretty good idea. 

“Good job.” he rewarded them with a small smile before putting Peter gently down on the sofa.

The two robots wasted no time in tucking Peter in with  _ surprising  _ gentleness and dexterity. 

He'd have to have a conversation about vent crawling and communication with Peter eventually, but for now he was happy with just know the kid was safe. 

That and the fact that Peter had hacked the system. 

_ His  _ system.

That was  _ definitely  _ cause to celebrate. 

And celebrate they would.


	2. Chapter 2

“Um… I’m missing something, aren’t I…?” 

Bruce shrugged, gently placing a bright red strawberry atop the mountain of whipped cream Natasha had just covered the stack of chocolate chip pancakes with. 

She shot him a bright smile, something that, oddly enough, sat weirdly in his gut. There was definitely something he wasn’t getting. 

Something.

But what was it?

He sat in silence, staring intently at the plate in front of him, not even registering the dinging of the elevator or the footfalls closing in towards the bar stool he was seated on. 

So it was no surprise when he nearly jumped out of his skin as a hand came dangerously close to his face. 

A hand holding… a  _ milkshake _ ??

“Morning, Peter.” Cap greeted, setting the large styrofoam milkshake down next to the plate.  

“Morning” Peter responded, completely thrown off guard. 

“Is today some sort of special day? Have I forgotten something?” 

Cap shrugged. 

“You should ask Tony. He bought the milkshake.” 

Peter quirked a brow. 

“It’s like five in the morning.” 

“He hasn’t gone to sleep yet.” Bruce answered, disapproval colored his voice. 

“He can hear you.” Tony answered from the dark of the living room. 

“Have you been there the whole time?” Peter asked shocked. 

“Depends when the ‘whole time’ started” he replied, pulling himself up from the sofa before grimacing at the suddenly too bright light. 

“Did you have a meeting or something?” Peter gestured at the clean navy suit. 

“Definitely or something, kid. Eat your breakfast. We don’t have much time.”

Tony strode over to the fridge to grab a can of coke. 

“About twenty minutes, to be more precise.”

Peter’s eyes widened before rushing the pancakes down before he realized he didn’t get a reason for having to gulp the sugar down.

“Wait. Why? Are we going somewhere? Is this a mission?” he rushed, looking slightly unhinged with his wide eyed expression of surprise. The white knuckle grip on his fork didn’t help his case. 

“I’ll tell you when you finish.” Tony hopped up on the stool beside Peter. 

Peter narrowed his eyes warily before turning back to his pancakes. 

Bruce nudged the milkshake forward. 

“Don’t forget to drink something. You’re gonna choke at the rate you’re going.” 

Peter nodded, taking the drink. 

The next five minutes was a blur of forkfulls of chocolate chip pancakes and milkshake, and the moment Peter finished Tony practically dragged the startled teen off his seat and towards the elevator. 

“If Pepper asks, I’m in Hong Kong.” Tony threw over his shoulder as they entered the elevator, not giving a second glance towards the congregated trio of superheroes before the doors closed swiftly in front of them.

___________

“You’re kidding.” 

“Nope.” 

“But-but I can’t. That’s beyond ridiculous, Mr. Stark!” 

Tony shot Peter a disapproving glare before turning back to his tablet. 

“And besides, I can’t just do that in my  _ pajamas.”  _

“You don’t have to.” He nodded over at the duffle bag next to Peter’s seat. 

Peter’s brow nearly hit his hairline as he noticed the Stark Industries duffle bag. 

“Did you really?”

“I did. Get over it.” 

Peter just stared. 

“I didn’t go into your room, Pete. Chill. I had Happy on a shopping run last night.” 

“Last night?” 

“Yeah, last night. The night where you decided that to crawl up and fall asleep in my vent instead of asking for help like a normal person.” 

Peter grimaced. 

“You should definitely clean your vents more often. I’m pretty sure I passed like five different spiders. Not to mention the dust.” 

“Or maybe- hear me out- maybe you should just stop sleeping in vents?” 

“It’s so quiet in there though…” 

“I can literally make you a soundproof room if you ask me. But that’s beyond the point. The point is, you’re grounded and this is part of your punishment.”

“That’s so not fair.” Peter pouted. 

“Of all of the things I could have done, this is the least evil, Peter. Trust me. You’re getting off easy.” 

Peter crossed his arms defensively. 

“And besides, the punishment fits the crime this time.” 

“Really?”

“Really.”

_________________

“I can’t believe you did that.” 

“But you had a good time, didn’t you?” 

“I did, but that was beyond ridiculous! You can’t just adjust the roster to let me sit in on an MIT programming course. I didn’t even apply!” 

“It was an open course.”

“Bribing the school with new Stark internships doesn’t make it an open course.” 

Tony shrugged. 

“They didn’t tell you to leave, did they?” 

“No…”

“There you go. Open course.”

Peter spluttered. 

“Besides, you can just think of it as an early college tour.” 

“What?”

“Because you’re going to MIT.” 

“Wait-”

“You don’t even have to visit other schools. Two birds, one stone.” 

“But-”

“They even said you qualified for the alumni scholarship.”

Peter blinked, taken aback by the sudden meaning behind the words that had just exited Tony’s mouth. 

“A-aren’t those for kids of alum?”

“ Yeah.”

“Mr. Stark-Tony. Wait.. does this mean.. Are you saying- kids?” Peter ended lamely. 

“Did I stutter?” 

Tony didn’t have to look up from his tablet to see the dorky smile blooming on Peter’s face.

Thousands of feet up in the sky in the luxury of his private jet, Tony couldn’t help but smile. 

The future was bright. 

He felt it. Deep within his reactor. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made up the alum scholarship thing!


End file.
